Uncategorised decision
ExtraDock
A competent macOS developer can reproduce a narrow, useful dock replacement (floating docks, basic widgets, app launch/drag-drop) but rebuilding the full polished product with reliable multi-monitor/DisplayLink behavior, lifetime-license UX, and polish would be a multi-week effort and risks losing time and support—so keep paying for the complete app unless you only need a minimal self-built workflow.
Visit website↗Built by Asaf Mazuz, who ships 6 products in this index
Not priced
No pricing page we fetched carried a figure, so there is nothing to compare against. The build side is still real.
$100one-off200 h to build
$0/mo4 h/mo upkeep
No published price to break even against.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All ExtraDock alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- User creates and arranges dock instances, pins apps/widgets to them, and launches apps or drops files onto dock items.
What it still won’t have
- Polished UI/UX and animations present in the commercial app
- Reliable handling of exotic DisplayLink/docking-station edge cases
- Ongoing support, updates and cross-mac compatibility testing
- Integrated paid license management and bundle offers
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
No published price
ExtraDock does not publish a price we could read, so there is nothing to compare against. What building costs is below.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a native macOS dock manager using Swift and SwiftUI (macOS 13+ target). Include: (1) persistent dock windows that can be placed on any display and edge, (2) per-dock customization (colors, size, icon overrides), (3) display detection and attach/detach handling, (4) app launching and running-app indicators via NSWorkspace/LSApplicationWorkspace events, (5) drag-and-drop support for files/folders and folder stacks, (6) a minimal widget system (clock, shelf, Live Dock mirror). Out of scope: cross-platform support, an installer/paid license server, and complex DisplayLink/workstation heuristics. Provide error handling, unit/UI tests for core flows, and an automated CI building signed developer builds.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 4 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Evidence score67
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 4
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productExtraDock home
- official pricingExtraDock pricing
- official docsExtraDock docs
- open sourcejosejuanqm/docky
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
